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Anatomy of a Scare: The Terrifying Scene from Netflix’s “Marianne” We Can’t Stop Thinking About

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Everything announced so far about Lionsgate’s Cobweb checks off all the boxes of a highly anticipated horror movie on the horizon. For starters, the script by Chris Thomas Devlin ranked at the top of 2018’s Bloodlist, an annual list of the year’s best unproduced genre features voted on by industry executives. Prolific producers like Roy Lee (ItDoctor Sleep), Jon Berg (Wonder Woman, Doctor Sleep), and Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg (This is the End, “The Boys”, “Preacher”) are attached. Even the logline sounds intriguing; “Peter has always been told the voice he hears at night is only in his head, but when he suspects his parents have been lying, he conspires to free the girl within the walls of his house.” It’s the precise type of premise that sounds perfect for newly attached director Samuel Bodin, the creator/director/co-writer behind Netflix‘s uber-creepy French series Marianne.

Marianne followed successful author Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) as she’s forced to return home to confront her past when the witch that haunts her books and nightmares terrorizes her waking life. For the duration of Emma’s writing career, the eponymous witch Marianne enjoyed finding her way to new victims through the books’ pages. With that avenue closed, she physically manifests in Emma’s life to demand the writer continue telling her malevolent exploits. Bodin ensured straight away that the viewer understood just how menacing and utterly frightening this evil witch could be with seriously unnerving scares. Of all the memorable, spine-tingling jolts and goosebumps-inducing moments of dread, there’s one unforgettable scare in episode two that stands above the rest. We can’t get it out of our heads.

In the streaming age of binge TV, series are often designed for easy consumption; one long narrative arc with its chapters broken down into digestible chunks that seamlessly blend into the next. Like comedy, though, horror requires timing precision. It’s tricky enough to craft scares and unsettling atmosphere in a feature-length film, and even trickier in a roughly six-hour series. Meaning horror series are rarely ever scary. Yet, Bodin made it look so effortless. Even more impressive is that he used the binge format as a weapon. 

The first five minutes of episode two, “Tradition,” deliver one of the most chilling scares in recent memory. On its own, the episode’s opening scare is enough to warrant sleeping with a night light. It’s rendered even more stunning by the way Boden uses the heightened climax of the previous episode to keep the momentum hurling forward, ramping up the tension to unbearable levels. 

The premiere, “Your Dreams,” wastes no time establishing many of the key players, the setup, and the creepy world of Marianne. The oft unlikable Emma has dragged her beleaguered assistant Camile (Lucie Boujenah) with her on her journey back home. After a series of awkward and flat out bizarre encounters with the locals, including off-putting Mrs. Daugeron (Mireille Herbstmeyer), the pair wind up at Emma’s parents’ house on the outskirts of town. There’s bad blood between Emma and, well, everyone, making poor Camile all the more uncomfortable in her stay. “Your Dreams” closes with Camile’s unexpected encounter with Emma’s parents in the middle of the night. The final ten minutes ends on a thrilling note, leaving your adrenaline soaring.

Camile gets up to go to the restroom, which proves disorienting in such a massive, dimly lit house. She quickly finds she’s not the only one awake- Emma’s parents are wandering the place nude and in a hypnotic daze. Emma’s father attacks Camile, then both parents wander into the woods, setting off the alarm and finally waking Emma. The screen goes black, and the credits kick in just as it delivers a jump scare; Emma’s knocked unconscious by her father. A straightforward yet unsettling scene heightened by the tension and blaring alarm sirens. 

When the second episode begins, you’d think it’d jump ahead to Emma regaining consciousness, giving the viewer room to catch their breath. It doesn’t. Instead, it refocuses back to Camile, now alone in the sprawling home and badly shaken. She works up the nerve to head downstairs, calling out for Emma over the wailing alarm and notices the back door wide open. That’s when the alarm stops and the phone rings. Poor Camile makes her way down a dark corridor to answer the phone. Shadows reach for her, and the mise en scène shows just how vulnerable Camile is out in the open; her back is almost always facing dark, empty spaces where something is likely lurking, waiting to strike. When she answers the phone, the rep on the other line from the alarm company should alleviate some of the tension… but it doesn’t.

That reassuring voice attempts to calm Camile before instructing her to close and lock that back door. She does. Then it tells her to look behind her. The house alarm may have ceased its wails, but her inner alarm spikes. The rep’s voice distorts and changes into Mrs. Daugeron’s. She’s there, waiting in the corner for Camile to see her. Her eyes transform, the music spikes, and terror crescendos until Emma shatters the suspense by pounding on the back door. 

Bodin draws out one long sequence over the final moments of the first episode into the opening of the next, without reprieve. It’s a series of scares at varying levels of fear. The strange, unnatural behavior of Emma’s parents disorients, exacerbating Camile’s fish-out-of-water anxieties. The parents move in a trancelike state, but give way to sudden bursts of unpredictable aggression. It further keeps us on edge. The setting, full of wide-open yet darkened spaces, is akin to being a small fish in a black sea of circling predators. The evil is closing in, but it’s not entirely clear from where it will strike. 

Offering a safety net only to rip it away is a tried and true scare tactic, and Bodin utilizes it well here by dangling comfort in front of Camile in the form of a friendly, authoritative voice on the phone. The meticulous pacing of this scene and Camile’s movements draw out the tension to near panic-inducing levels. 

It’s also interesting to note that the entire sequence is centered around Camile, the meek outsider. Straightaway, Emma is presented as the assertive, domineering personality, and one of her favorite hobbies is strong-arming her mild-mannered assistant. This seemingly-endless layering of scares begins with Camile waking up in the middle of the night, venturing cautiously out into the strange place she finds herself. It ends when Emma reappears at the back door, finally giving both her and us a chance to calm our increased heart rate. 

Bodin stretches out the horror for fifteen minutes, and that’s hardly the only scare that he employs in Marianne. If he packed so much terror into an eight-episode series, it’s exciting to think of what he can achieve in a lean feature-film runtime. 

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

The 10 Scariest Moments in the ‘Ghostbusters’ Movie Franchise

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scariest Ghostbusters

WARNING: The following contains mild spoilers for the Ghostbusters franchise. 

Yes, Ghostbusters is a horror movie – gateway horror to be exact. Setting aside the fact that the title literally contains the word “ghost,” a foundational element of the scariest genre, the franchise follows a group of paranormal researchers who battle entities attacking from beyond the grave. After countless rewatches, the classic films and newer sequels may not scare us much anymore, but how many times have we as genre fans asserted that a film does not have to be “scary” to be considered horror?

Genre classification is nebulous and any film that centers on ghosts has a place in the sprawling house of horror. Yes, it’s true that most viewers over the age of thirteen will find more to laugh about than scream while watching a Ghostbusters film, but each entry contains a handful of terrifying moments. With Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire uniting three generations of the parascientific warriors, perhaps it’s time to highlight the most frightening moments from each phase of this legendary franchise. 


Ghostbusters (1984)

A Haunted Library

scariest Ghostbusters movie

Ivan Reitman’s original film begins with a campfire tale come to life. We follow an unsuspecting librarian as she ventures deep into the stacks to reshelve a book. With her hair blowing from a spectral breeze, we watch a hardcover float across the aisle to the opposite shelf. A second book follows, but the librarian remains unaware. She finally notices the disturbance when card catalog drawers open on their own spewing cards into the air like literary geysers. She flees through the maze of narrow stacks only to come face to face with a mysterious force who blows her back with a powerful roar. We won’t see the Library Ghost (Ruth Oliver) until a later scene, but this introduction firmly positions the film that follows in the world of horror. On first watch, we can only speculate as to the ghost’s malevolence and whether or not the librarian has survived the encounter. It’s the perfect introduction to a world in which ghosts are not only real, they will pounce on unsuspecting humans at the drop of a … book. 

Shaky Ground

The original finale may not be the film’s most terrifying moment, but it has become the franchise’s most iconic image. When faced with choosing a form for Gozer (Slavitza Jovan), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) inadvertently conjures up an image from his childhood. Moments later, a set of once-cheery eyes peer through the skyscrapers. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man towers over the city, stomping and destroying everything in its path. While there’s definitely something terrifying about a jovial mascot turned deadly killer, what happens moments before is arguably scarier. 

The Ghostbusters arrive at the luxury apartment building to throngs of adoring fans. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) plays into this hero-worship and promises an easy solution to a supernatural problem. But before they can enter the building, lightning strikes the upper floors sending massive chunks of brick and cement raining down on the barricaded street. The ground begins to shake and a giant fissure swallows the entire team. It’s a destabilizing moment made all the more terrifying by its shocking reality. Speculation about the existence of ghosts may vary from person to person, but there’s no doubt that sinkholes are very real. It’s entirely possible that the ground we’re standing on right now could spontaneously begin to crumble, sucking us down into a seemingly bottomless void beneath the earth. 


Ghostbusters II (1989)

Runaway Baby

Ivan Reitman’s sequel begins with a sly update on the life of a beloved character as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) pushes a baby carriage containing her infant son Oscar (Henry and William Deutschendorf). When last we saw the attractive cellist, she was kissing Venkman in the wreckage of Gozer’s demise and the thought of this loveable lady’s man becoming a father may be more nerve-wracking than anything contained in the first film. We never learn much about Oscar’s real father, but we do discover that fate has a sinister plan for the adorable child. While Dana chats with her landlord, Oscar’s carriage rolls a few feet away. Dana reaches for the handle, but the buggy begins speeding down the sidewalk careening through the busy crowds. As if guided by unseen hands, the carriage twists and turns, then abruptly swerves into oncoming traffic. Cars honk and veer out of the way, but the racing carriage marks a collision course with an approaching bus. The wheels screech to a halt moments before what would surely be a deadly crash and Dana rushes to embrace her vulnerable child. This harrowing scene is likely to terrorize any parent who’s experienced the fear of trying to protect a baby in an unpredictable world.  

Sewer Screams

scariest Ghostbusters scene

While investigating the second film’s primary villain, Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg), three of the Ghostbusters venture into the sewers hoping to find a growing river of slime. Ray, Winston (Ernie Hudson), and Egon (Harold Ramis) trek down an abandoned subway line while speculating about the hordes of cockroaches and rats they hear scurrying behind the walls. These vermin may be scary, but there are more malevolent monsters lurking in the dark. Ray and Egon both amuse themselves with the tunnel’s echo but Winston’s “hello” goes unanswered. Moments later, a demonic voice bellows his name from the dark end of the corridor. Waiting behind him is a severed head floating in the empty tunnel. As he tries to retreat, the team finds themselves surrounded by dozens of ghoulish heads that disappear faster than they materialized. Moments later, a ghostly train hurtles towards them, swallowing Winston in its spectral glow. Egon theorizes that something is trying to keep them from reaching their destination with effective scares designed to frighten the Ghostbusters and audience alike.  


Ghostbusters (2016)

Haunted Basement

Like its predecessor, Paul Feig’s remake opens with a spooky vignette. Garrett (Zach Woods) gives a tour of the Aldridge Mansion, a 19th century manor preserved in the middle of the busy city, and walks visitors through a troubling history of excess and cruelty. Hoping to inject a bit of excitement, he pauses near the basement door and tells the horrifying story of Gertrude Aldridge (Bess Rous), a wealthy heiress who murdered the house’s many servants. Hoping to avoid a public scandal, her family locked her in the basement and her restless spirit can still be heard trying to escape. Garrett triggers a trick candlestick to fly off the shelf, hinting at the spirit’s presence, but a late night incident shows that the deceased murderess may actually be lurking in her ancestral home. While closing up for the night, Garrett hears ominous noises from behind the barricaded door and watches the knob rattle against the heavy locks. An unseen attacker hurls him through the house and eventually drives him down the basement stairs to a sea of green slime pooling on the floor. The stairs crumble leaving the tour guide hanging on to the door frame for dear life as a spectral figure glides toward him with menacing hands outstretched. Once again, we won’t see the fully revealed ghost of Gertrude Aldridge until later in the film, but this terrifying opening sets the stage for a dangerous showdown with an army of the dead.

Mannequin On the Move

The scariest moment of the 2016 remake is arguably the vicious online hatred sparked well before the film’s release. In response to brutal comments posted to the first official trailer, the cast returned to film an additional scene in which they react to dehumanizing negativity. But another sequence may cut closer to the heart of this upsetting experience. The Ghostbusters respond to a call at a concert venue and split up to cover more ground. Patty (Leslie Jones) enters what she calls a “room full of nightmares” and immediately reverses course to avoid a multitude of mannequins stacked haphazardly in the dark. As she walks out the door, one of the faceless creatures turns its head her way. Walking on its own, this sentient prop follows her down the hall, pausing the moment she turns around. Eventually breaking cover, the mannequin chases Patty down the hall to the rest of the team. They unleash their proton packs and make quick work of the gargoyle-like ghost. Though this connection is surely unintentional, it’s a terrifying parallel to a faceless monster sneaking up to attack a woman simply trying to do her job. 


Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Smoke and Monsters

While Ghostbusters: Afterlife is nowhere near as scary as the horror films playing in the local summer school science class, Jason Reitman’s legacyquel does contain its share of frights. The film opens with a harrowing scene as we join Egon (Oliver Cooper) in the last moments of his life. Racing away from a sinister mountain, Egon’s truck collides with an unseen force and flips upside down in a field of corn. The elderly scientist races back to his crumbling farmhouse with a trap in hand, intent on ensnaring this invisible being. Unfortunately, the power fails and Egon has no choice but to hide the trap under the floorboards and wait. He sits in a comfortable old chair as a horrifying cloud of smoke drifts in behind him, momentarily forming the shape of a fanged beast. Demonic hands grab him from within the chair, likely causing the heart attack that will be listed on his death certificate. But his abandoned PKE meter below the chair activates, reminding us that Egon may be deceased, but he is far from gone.  

The Terror Returns

scariest Ghostbusters moments

Ghostbusters: Afterlife turns out to be a touching tribute to Harold Ramis as his friends and family unite to complete the beloved scientist’s heroic mission. In addition to a tearjerker ending, Reitman also includes a bevy of callbacks to the original film. Not only do the Spenglers square off against the team’s first enemy, Gozer (Emma Portner), the nonbinary entity brings back the Terror Dogs that once possessed Dana Barret and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). These demonic beasts first rear their ugly heads while Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) stops by Walmart to buy a midnight snack. While the horde of mini marshmallow men are eerie in their gleeful self-destruction, the ghostly canine that chases him through the store is the stuff of nightmares. Early iterations of this fearsome creature are hindered by ’80s-era special effects, but Reitman’s version feels frighteningly real. While Gary frantically tries to find his keys, this Terror Dog snarls at him from atop his car dashboard, leaving the endearing science teacher with no way to escape. 


Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Frozen Dinner 

After a film set in a small mountain town, the opening of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire takes us back to New York circa 1904. We see the fire station in its early years as a horse-drawn carriage responds to a call. Arriving at the scene, a fireman tests the door for heat and watches in horror as his hand instantly freezes. Inside, they find jagged shards of ice surrounding and piercing a frozen dinner party. Guests are posed in various states of ice-covered surprise while an eerie record skips in the corner. A figure covered in brass armor we will come to know as a Fire Master is crouched in the corner clutching a mysterious orb. When the fireman touches this rippling sphere, the frozen diners’ heads begin to explode, an ominous precursor to the chilling threat awaiting the newest Ghostbusting team. 

Lights Out

If Ghostbusters: Afterlife featured the lo-fi gear of the 80s, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hurls us into the future. Wealthy financier Winston Zeddemore has been surreptitiously building a new containment unit to relieve pressure on the original model along with a secret lab designed to study ghosts and haunted objects. In addition to fancy new gadgets and gear, this facility contains several captured spirits like a fanged Wraith and a speedy Possessor. Lab techs assure the astonished Spengler team that they are perfectly safe, but it seems they’ve overestimated the facility’s security. Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Lars (James Acaster) are studying the aforementioned orb when the power goes out, leaving them stranded in the dark with a cache of haunted objects. Not only does the ancient sphere hold a deadly spirit, the proton fields containing the captured ghosts have just been disabled. These terrifying creatures begin to drift through the walls toward the defenseless lab techs, perhaps at the bidding of an evil commander. Thankfully the generator kicks on in the nick of time, drawing the ghosts back into their cells. It’s a tense moment reminding us that no matter how charming the Ghostbusters may be, they still spend their days with evil spirits just waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc.  


The Ghostbusters franchise excels at mixing humor and fear, practically setting the blueprint for the modern horror comedy. Moments from the original two films terrified a generation of gen-xers and elder millennials and newer iterations are currently scaring their kids. The fifth franchise installment effectively passes the proton pack torch to a new generation of Ghostbusters and we can only hope additional films will continue to induct future generations of Ghostbusters fans into the horror family as well. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now playing in theaters. Read our review.

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